"For several weeks we have been in negotiations with Northwest Broadcasting over programming fees and we have made every effort to reach a fair deal," said Cable ONE Vice President John Gosch. "However, Northwest Broadcasting is demanding a rate increase of nearly 70% over their previous contract with Cable ONE– a rate higher than paid to any television broadcaster in any of Cable ONE's other 40+ markets. Northwest Broadcasting also refused our request for an extension, so that we could keep these channels up and running for our customers while negotiations continued."

Northwest Broadcasting removed their channels from the Cable ONE channel line-up at midnight on December 31.

Gosch said the markets most impacted by the Northwest drop are in Cleveland and Grenada, MS, where constituents have lost all four of their local broadcast stations - WABG (ABC), WABG2 (FOX), WNBD (NBC), and WXVT (CBS).

"Unfortunately, Northwest currently controls all major networkbroadcast stations in both Cleveland and Grenada, leaving constituents in these markets without local news, weather, sports and other broadcast programming," Gosch said. "We're disappointed that Northwest has not accepted our counterproposal, which we consider more than fair. Cable ONE has successfully negotiated for the carriage of hundreds of broadcast stations and we hope to do so with Northwest Broadcasting very soon."

Cable One, Inc. is among the 10 largest cable companies in the United States. Serving more than 650,000 customers in 19 states with high-speed Internet, cable television and telephone service, Cable ONE provides consumers with a wide range of the latest products and services, including wireless Internet service, high-definition programming and phone service with free, unlimited long-distance calling in the continental U.S.